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SHIFANG, China, May 18 -- Statistically speaking, Zhang Zhengjie and his factory are fine.

Number of workers injured: zero. Number dead: zero. The factory's steel-reinforced walls shook but held during last week's massive earthquake. After it was over, the only evidence that something nightmarish had taken place in other parts of the city was the presence of minor fractures in pipes that were easily fixed.

Yet the fertilizer factory hasn't been operational since the quake struck last Monday. It isn't a problem with supplies or machinery. It's the employees.

Many thousands in and around the quake's epicenter in Sichuan province are living in tent cities or on their lawns -- even though their houses are perfectly fine.

And residents are hoarding medicine and donning face masks in areas that public health officials have said are free of disease.